Witches are real—and each of us may be one—in this all-new paranormal suspense novel from#1 New York Timesbestselling author Christopher Pike.

Heading
off for a weekend in Las Vegas with her friends, Jessie Ralle has only
one worry: how to make it through the road trip in the same car as her
ex, Jimmy Kelter. The guy she hasn’t come close to getting over since he
broke up with her five months ago. The guy who’s finally ready to tell
her why he did it, because now he wants her back.

Jessie
discovers that she’s stumbled into a world where some people can do the
impossible and others may not even be human. Are there really witches?
Is she one of them? Armed with new abilities and shocked to discover an
entire parallel world in which she and her loved ones co-exist, Jessie’s
desperate to learn whom she can trust and whom she can’t—before it’s
too late.

MY REVIEW:

I received
this audiobook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I
did not receive any compensation for my review, and the views
expressed herein are my own.

Witch World completely sucked me in!

At the outset, we meet Jessie Ralle and she is reflecting
back on her life. She discovered that she was a witch at the age of 18 just after graduation, when her class took a weekend celebratory trip to
Las Vegas. Jessie and her best friend, Alex, hit the blackjack tables when
they get to Vegas. She meets a man named Russ, who seems to have a knack for
knowing what cards he is going to get. He gives Alex bad advice on purpose to
get rid of her so that he can have Jessie all to himself. Jessie ends up spending
her last dime at Russ’ insistence that she put all her money in. Before the
night is out, Russ is up over half a million dollars and Jessie has won a
substantial amount herself. The only problem is that Jessie is only 18 years
old and, therefore, underage. Her fake ID may have been sufficient to get through
the door, but she now needs to provide her Social Security Number to collect
her winnings. She agrees to let Russ cash out the chips
for both of them, and she waits for him in his hotel room. Although she worries a bit about whether he will skip out on her, she also feels that she can trust him.

The next day, Jessie is kidnapped and thrown into a meat
locker. She tries to escape but fails, and she slips into unconsciousness as the effects of hypothermia begin to take their toll. When
she awakens, she is in a morgue and the coroner is about to cut her open to
perform the autopsy. Her mind is awake but she cannot speak or move, and she
has no idea how to get his attention before he kills her for real when he
removes her organs!

Pike has created an amazing parallel world called Witch
World. A person can have up to ten extra genes, but the genes can overlap to
create extra abilities. For example, a person can have three extra genes but
possess six special abilities such as a gene for healing or longevity or
strength. These unique individuals with these extra genes are known as “witches,”
and dying activates these “witch” genes. When a person with these extra
abilities dies in the Real World, she awakens in Witch World. It exists at the
same time as the Real World, but in a different time zone. The person transitions
between worlds at dawn, so she will go to bed in Witch World but wake up in
the Real World but a day earlier. Essentially, she will live each day twice:
First in Witch World and then again in the Real World.

I liked Jessie, whose strength is admirable. She is thrust
into this unknown reality and has to figure out how to tap into her special
powers to enable her to survive. While Witch World looks very much like the Real World, the rules are different. Jessie straddles the line between good and
evil, which makes her a bit of a loose cannon and an interesting protagonist.
She does have some dark tendencies, and she could go either way.

The first half of the story was really fast-paced and was
hard for me to put down. In the second half of the book, the world-building
became more complex as Pike goes back in time – sometimes thousands of years – to explain
the back-story of some of the characters. There were parts that were somewhat convoluted,
and it felt a bit like information-overload. However, overall, I still really enjoyed
the book and I am planning to read the sequel!

I am surprised by the “Grades 9 and up” rating of this book.
Due to the sexual content and the age of the protagonist, it definitely
qualifies for the “New Adult” label.

Narrator Justine Eyre is new-to-me, and I really enjoyed her performance.
It was very easy to determine who was speaking due to the subtle inflections
and accents that she gave to each character. Her pacing was excellent, and she
was a pleasure to listen to!

MY RATING:

4 stars!! It was really good, and you should put it on your TBR list! A big thanks to Simon Audio for the opportunity to review this audiobook!